Foodbanks prepare for busiest December yet

DWP insists most welfare payments made on time and in full

A foodbank charity is braced for its busiest December yet as it called on the next government to work towards a scenario where everyone has enough money for basics.

The Trussell Trust, which runs a network of foodbanks across the UK, said new data shows December 2018 was the busiest month for foodbanks last year.

It said 186,185 three-day emergency food parcels were provided by foodbanks in the Trussell Trust’s network to people in crisis, with 78,536 of these going to children.

This is 44% higher than the monthly average for the 2018-19 financial year, the charity said.

The figures are reflected at a local level.

Foodbank staff in Fife have described the rise in demand as both “worrying and alarming” before the festive season.

The number of food parcels distributed by the Trussell Trust in Fife alone last year totalled 14,689 – an increase of over 40% in Fife in the last five years.

A spokesman for Storehouse North East Fife in St Andrews said: “Winter is always our busiest time of year and although lots of people are very generous with donations, our usage has increased by quite a lot and is still increasing.”

A spokesman for Dundee Foodbank said: “Leading up to the Christmas period is always a really difficult time for families, where they are forced to juggle between buying gifts for family members and buying food, so the foodbanks are there to help.”

The Rev Dr Karen Fenwick, Lowson Memorial Church, which runs a food project in Forfar, said they would be setting up a stall in the church grounds over the festive period so those in need could help themselves.

The church also runs a breakfast club and a pensioners’ lunch club.

She said: “I don’t think we’re going to see an increase based on the previous December.

“That said, we’re going to be working hard to make the resources we are given available to people.”

A spokeswoman for Perth Foodbank said: “We have been going up roughly 20% year-on-year. We are feeding more families and more children. We don’t know what is going to happen over Christmas – we never know what is going to happen one way or the other – but generally our usage is going up.”

Trussell Trust chief executive Emma Revie said: “Nine in 10 of us believe hunger in the UK is a problem – foodbanks cannot and should not have to continue to pick up the pieces.”

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “We spend over £95 billion a year on working age benefits and Universal Credit supports more than 2.5 million people across the UK. With Universal Credit people can get paid urgently if they need it and 95% of payments are made in full and on time.”

The Queen joked it was lucky rare stamps from her collection were “genuine” after they were assessed by some of the country’s leading philatelists.

During a visit to the Royal Philatelic Society to open its new building in the City of London, the Queen was shown the stamps sent for authentication.

Chris Harman, chairman of the society’s experts committee, talked the monarch through the process of identifying the stamps and said later the head of state had quipped: “Lucky they were genuine.”